Ilkin Amirov Leads Final Six in EPT12 Prague Main Event
Day 5 of the European Poker Tour Season 12 Prague Main Event – a tournament that attracted 1,044 players and created a prize pool of €5,063,400 – saw 23 players return to action, but after 12 hours of play, just six remained with Ilkin Amirov and his stack of 9.975 million leading the way.
Others still in contention for the €921,540 first-place prize are Gleb Tremzin (7.785 million), Thomas Butzhammer (5.49 million), Slaven Popov (3.64 million), Hossein Ensan (2.715 million), and Olivier Ferrero (1.745 million).
Toward the start of the day, Henri Jaakola was the first player to go, the result of his ace-eight failing to get there against the pocket tens of Chris Walker, but he soon had company on the rail including Preben Stokkan (22nd - €30,730), who lost a race holding ace-queen against the pocket fours of Esnan; Tomas Pleticha (21st - €30,730), who shoved his short stack with ten-seven only to run into Enio Bozzano's pocket queens; and Abbas Maradi (20th - €35,800), whose pocket jacks failed to hold against Popov's king-queen.
From there, Dominik Paus (19th - €35,800) fell after his pocket jacks were outdrawn by an ace-king when an ace spiked on the river, and French rapper Bruno Lopes feel in similar fashion when his jacks were bested by the ace-king of Tremzin after a king appeared on the turn. Not long after, two back-to-back hands led to the elimination of Benjamin Lamprecht in 17th place.
After the eliminations of Sebastian Gohr (16th - €40,860), Bozzano (15th - €45,930), and Samuel Vousden (14th - €45,930), a wild hand went down, one that'll go down in the annals of EPT history.
With 13 players remaining, Walker open-shoved for 985,000 under the gun. The extremely short-stacked Marc Macdonnell, who began the day as the chip leader, must have liked the protection and opted to call off his last 165,000.
Amirov, who held the chip lead, then called from the cutoff, and when action reached Javier Gomez, who won the World Poker Tour Prague Main Event a week prior, he moved all in over the top for 2.58 million in the big blind. Amazingly, Amirov snap-called to put all three players at risk, and as fate would have it he held the best hand.
Amirov: 
Gomez: 
Walker: 
Macdonnell: 
Understandably, the players, rail, and commentators on EPTLive were amazed at what they were seeing, a level of excitement that was ramped up when the 
flop gave Gomez a flush draw. Everyone was drawing live to the turn, which ended up being the useless 
.
That meant it all came down to the river. The dealer burned one last time and put out the 
, which missed everyone and allowed Amirov's kings to hold. Macdonnell and Walker were eliminated in 13th and 12th place respectively, both for €50,990, while Gomez took 11th for €56,950. Not long after, Gavin O'Rourke ran eights into the queens of Onur Unsel to bust in tenth, which set up the unofficial final table.
From there, Vlado Banicevic and Unsal took their leave before play was halted with just six players in contention.
Day 6 will kick off at 1:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, though coverage won't start until an hour later due to the live-stream delay. We'll be on hand to capture all the action on the way to crowning a winner, so be sure to join us then. While you wait, check out this video on the aforementioned triple-elimination hand.